A Letter from the Prophet

By Kelly Santos Figueiredo Ribeiro

Goiás, Brazil

Illustration by Chris Lyons

I was hesitant about joining the Church when my husband introduced it to me. He gave me a Book of Mormon, and after many lessons and nearly two years working with the missionaries, I was baptized in 2007. I struggled for a while after I became a member of the Church. I did not understand the importance of modern-day prophets. In my mind, a prophet had to be someone like Moses with his staff.

“Does the prophet speak to God?” I asked my husband.

“Yes,” he said.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, the prophet speaks to God.”

“Then I am going to ask the Lord to tell the prophet to send me a letter saying this is Jesus Christ’s Church.”

“Oh no!” my husband said. “It doesn’t happen like that!”

I was determined.

“If the prophet speaks to the Lord, then the Lord will speak with the prophet, and he will send me a letter.”

At church one Sunday, a missionary handed me a DVD and asked me to watch it with my family. It contained the testimonies of the prophet and apostles. The first person to speak was President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008). I was impressed. He seemed sincere, and I felt he was telling the truth.

“See, this is your testimony of the prophet,” my husband said.

“No, I still want a letter from him,” I replied.

One night, the missionaries arrived at our home and handed me a magazine.

“We don’t know why, but we felt we should bring this to you,” they said. It was a copy of the October 2006 Liahona, still wrapped in plastic.

I opened it and found an article from President Hinckley addressed to new members of the Church. He said, “I leave this testimony, my blessing, and my love with each of you and my invitation to continue to be part of this great latter-day miracle that is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”1

I felt he was speaking directly to me. I was not even a member of the Church when this was published, but it had been saved for me. I know that the Lord hears our prayers and that He speaks to a living prophet today.